Colleen Harding and Isobel Jones join the ton-up club

Colleen Harding and Isobel Jones have been selected to win their 100th caps for North Shropshire on Sunday on opening day in the British Ladies county championship programme.

Harding, the county’s sole winner of the Ladies Champion of Champions in 2000, will join the ton up club in the away leg of the President’s Cup group game against Cheshire at Knutsford.

But Jones, now on course to be county president for a third time next year, will get to three figures in the home leg on the back ‘winter’ green of the District Club, within a mile of her Whitchurch home.

“Our current president Isobel Jones and our past president Colleen Harding are both playing their 100th‎ match for the county on Sunday,” confirmed North Shropshire Ladies association chairperson Chris Sayers.

“Colleen’s first match was in 1982 against Shropshire at Bridgewater BC and from what I can see in the records she has won over 60 per cent of her matches.

“Also worthy of mention is that in the last few years she has, of course, been playing in the same county team as her two daughters (Tracy and Katie).”

Wem-based Harding, currently bowling for USC in the Whitchurch League, has been picked to play at No.6 at Knutsford as North Shropshire open their campaign outside of the top 16 teams in what is effectively the second tier of the ladies county competition.

That’s because they lost all four of their group games last year, albeit all narrowly, and so now feature in the new President’s Cup after re-structuring of the championship to bring it into line with the men’s calendar.

The demotion is a blow for Jones (Bridgewater) who was secretary of North Shropshire Ladies for many years before going on to be British Ladies president and serving on the management committee.

“She played her first match in 1983 against Staffordshire and out of the 99 games she has played so far she has won just over 40 per cent,” said Sayers.

“With two players playing their 100th match on Sunday, the team is a mixture of experience and some newer players – and we have high hopes of a better season.”

Full preview of North Shropshire and Shropshire’s openers, with line-ups, will appear in Saturday’s paper